'Can't judge somebody's a good fit or not': Martina Navratilova asks Emma Raducanu to give more time before deciding coach Francis Roig's fate

Former world number one Martina Navratilova believes that Britain’s Emma Raducanu must give her new coach, Francis Roig, more time to judge the outcome. The 22-year-old, who gathered all the limelight at the age of just 18 when she lifted the US Open back in 2021, has found it hard to gather success on the court ever since lifting her only major title at the highest level.

Since then, Raducanu has struggled with fitness concerns as well as indifferent form. During that time, Raducanu has been criticised for consistently changing her coaches, which did not allow her to settle. Recently, Raducanu hired the ex-coach of the former world number on,e Rafael Nadal, Roig.

Her decision came just weeks before the start of the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year. Raducanu, during the US Open, was full of praise for Roig and stated that she could see things improving on a day-to-day basis. "I'm really enjoying working with Francis,” said Raducanu after securing a first-round win against Japan’s Ena Shibahara in straight sets with a score of 6-1, 6-2 in New York. “He's a great person to have on and off the court. He is chatty and great fun off the court, we have a lot of laughs which definitely helps. He's great at having that calm and composure about him, reassuring me that all the work we're doing off the court doesn't need to pay off straight away but I know we are working towards something and building day by day.

She continued by saying: “I can be pretty tough on myself sometimes. He just helps a lot with trying to be not such a perfectionist. I think the biggest milestones are that I put a lot of trust in what I'm doing with Francisco on the practice court. I think we're just working really well, doing the right stuff on the practice court, and I just feel like I'm improving. I'm doing a lot day to day. It's going well, and I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying getting better, and the process of feeling like at the end of the day I'm satisfied I got a little bit better, and just repeating it."

Big call to make

Now, former world number one Navratilova has asked Raducanu to give more time to Roig before judging his impact on her game. Navratilova spoke to Sky Sports where she stated that there is ‘no substitute’ to playing matches at the highest level and that no amount of training can show the exact level of the player.

"Well I haven't spoken to him [Roig] so I don't know exactly what his mentality or philosophy on tennis is, but he's been there for so many years with top players, with Nadal, and he certainly has the experience,” said Navratilova. "I think you need to give it some time - you can't after a month judge whether somebody's a good fit or not - you should kind of know what their philosophy is before you sign up with them and then you need to buy into it and trust the process and trust in the coach that he or she knows what they're doing and let it play out and take responsibility for yourself as well."

She continued by saying: "There's no substitute for match play no matter how much you practise, how much you train. It all comes down to proofs in the eating of the pudding. It all comes down to 'can you do it during matches?', and then once you get those matches under your belt then you can build up to it and say 'okay, this part of what the coach is telling me is working really well or this part is not great or I'm not ready for it or this is not the right fit for me'. It's up to the player to see what works for them and make that decision, but matches tell you everything."